♫ ♫ ♫
KRIMAR AND PAURO slowed their talking when they perceived that Selina no longer followed their explanation. Krimar waved a hand in front of Selina’s face and asked a question. It took a moment, but Selina lifted her eyes and met their awkward stares.
She tried for the short response she knew: I’m fine, in Klaqin, but nothing came out of her mouth except a flurry of short English phrases, ones she would have put a hashtag in front of, a silly habit. And then the tears came. And she shook.
Oh, how she wished Alex was at her side. He always knew how to calm her down, how to handle her seizures, how to protect her.
Without another Klaqin cluck Krimar took one arm and Pauro the other and they hurried her toward an underground river. All three stepped down into the cool liquid. Selina wondered if her clothing would drink up the sweet smelling waters, but only her shoes seemed to get wet. Her clothing inflated, not enough to make her buoyant, but enough to provide a layer of protection. She hiccupped. The weight of an impending seizure fell away.
Marcum’s parents continued to lead her into deeper and deeper waters. The river rippled with their passing and though it wasn’t bright enough to see where the river was going, she could see their feet on the shiny bottom.
“I’m a good swimmer. You can let go. Oh … how do I say that in Klaqin?” She gave a quick shake of her hands, expecting them to let go, but they held her more tightly and pulled her farther out. Something similar to algae floated by, gold in color, wavering in the current like locks of mermaid’s hair.
Pauro said, “Nuwo,” and both Pauro and Krimar tugged Selina under the surface.
Selina had managed a quick breath, but it wasn’t going to last for as deep as they were pulling her. She kicked her legs with uncharacteristic violence, trying to escape to the surface. They yanked her deeper. She opened her eyes and nearly gasped in a mouthful of liquid, surprised by what she could so clearly see.
CHAPTER 14
♫ … all time’s frozen forever still … ♫
A LIQUID DOOR. Selina plainly saw what was beyond the liquid door. A brightly lit room held various sized chairs all occupied by individuals, mostly men, leaning forward to watch her and Marcum’s parents swim toward the entrance.
When Pauro’s hand grabbed the door, the river changed course. He easily pulled the door wide, creating an air bubble that Krimar wrenched Selina through.
The thud of the door closing behind her was the first thing Selina heard followed by the disharmony of multiple voices speaking at once. She should have been dripping wet, but there remained no evidence of her river journey and she wondered if it wasn’t water at all but that glass-like substance her hand had passed through when she and Alex first arrived.
“Selina,” Pauro began, “this is the selco in charge of the nansa.”
“What?”
The group of round-faced Klaqins struck her as an ad for chalky face paint. Beige, pink, light blue, pale green, browns and grays.
Selina held onto Krimar’s hand and inched a little closer to her. A Klaqin question word was on the tip of her reluctant tongue, then it was gone. If only she’d had more time in the language cab. She scanned the faces again and found one that seemed friendly: a small platinum-haired man with large ears and pleasant eyes. He smiled at her, rose to his feet and crossed the bright room to stand in front of her.
She mumbled at Krimar, gripping her hand tighter, “He looks like my Grandpa Turlek.”
“Turlek was my brother,” the man answered in fairly good English.
“No way,” Selina said, responding to both the incredible news and the fact that here was someone speaking her language. “We’re related? You’re my great uncle?”
“I do not know this word ‘uncle,’ but long ago, when we were hardly more than children Turlek chose to go into space while I brought the knowledge of space into the heart of our planet.”
Selina released Krimar’s hand and glanced from the old man in front of her to Marcum’s father to the now quiet listeners who exhibited wonder and curiosity at the brief and foreign exchange between alien and native.
“Um, everybody’s looking at us. Do they understand? Can they all speak English?”
“No. I invented the language cabs and have become a regular user, but these members of the selco have used only the science cabs. I will translate for them all that you have to tell us.”
“But I haven’t anything to tell you. And what’s a selco and that other thing he said … a nansa?”
“We, the group, are the selco. We make all the decisions in opposition to the current government, the one that is run by the First Commanders. The people obey the Commanders, but secretly listen to us, waiting for the rebellion.”
“Hashtag resistance.”
“Hashtag?”
“Never mind. Can I sit down? I think I’m missing a big piece of the puzzle. I wish Alex was here.” Her dependence on him in all situations social was never more needed than now.
♫ ♫ ♫
I NODDED MY head in sync with the rhythm of Marcum’s bullet-list of a plan. But it wasn’t going to work and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him. Who the heck crosses the universe and comes up with a lame-brain plan like this?
But then I realized the perfection of the plan because we were in control of time.
“I’m in,” I said, “but I want to be the one who works with Selina, not Coreg. He can time-pace with you instead of me. I don’t trust him alone with her.”
“That won’t work. You are not familiar with either of the ships we will use. The Fighter Five will fail and the Intimidator must be sacrificed. For this plan to work we have to steal two Gleezhian ships I’ve already located. Coreg will pilot one and I will pilot the other. There is no other option but to have a pacer on each ship.”
I tried to come up with an argument, but I couldn’t think of one. He was right.
And this was crazy. Four kids against the universe.
“Okay,” I said, “but I’m not happy about this.” I glared at Coreg. “You don’t let anything happen to her, you understand?”
He didn’t even twitch an eyebrow as he stared at me. I wanted him to smirk so I’d have a reason to try some martial arts moves on him.
♫ ♫ ♫
“AND WHAT’S THE nansa?” Selina asked.
“They are the Gleezhian slaves, a growing population that’s become more of a problem than we ever imagined. Refugees, I think your word is.”
“So they fled their planet?”
“That is true.”
“So, how do I help, uncle, uh, what do I call you?”
“Esko.”
“Uncle Esko. I can bend time, you know. I thought I was coming here to help. It was sort of an impulse thing.”
“Unfortunately the secret leader of the selco, Second Commander Dace, was killed in the battle that you, Coreg and Alex survived, but we have his instructions and are prepared to carry them out.” His face changed to a darker shade as he reached for Selina’s hand. “You won’t need your communicator.” He pulled the thumb ring off her with a quick twist. “In fact, it will be to our advantage to hide you and your time-bending skills for the time being.”
Esko slipped the ring onto his middle finger and nodded to Krimar who turned and stepped back through the door into the glassy river. She moved away without a glance or a word to Pauro, who moved closer to Selina, his eyes signaling the same compassionate expression she’d seen in Marcum’s eyes more than once.
Something was wrong.
♫ ♫ ♫
MARCUM FLEW US down to a rural spot in the center of their planet where fields of pale plants flourished. He had a few quick words with Coreg and then he left us. I didn’t have to wonder how he would explain both of us missing when he got back to the other ship—I already knew. That was step two of his plan. I did wonder how the whole time thing worked and what would happen to the time and space around us once he left.
I had a while
to wait. What had been a still, soundless landscape finally came to life a good Klaqin hour or so after he was out of sight—a quiet, brooding hour in which Coreg did nothing but breathe slowly and stare at me. I assumed that the resumption of time here coordinated with Marcum resuming time back on the Fighter Five.
A mist of water rose from the surrounding lakes and ponds and settled onto the acres of produce exactly like my father had described in what I thought at the time were fictitious bedtime stories. Our body suits soaked up the vapors too. I opened my mouth to the sweet water. I was thirsty, but it didn’t take many drops before I felt quenched. Despite the predicament and this whole stepping outside of time business I had enough time to absorb more than moisture. There were musical tones resonating from the uneven rows of crops. Lyrics from an Ed Sheeran song danced on the tip of my tongue, but no way was I going to so much as hum in front of Coreg.
“Do you hear that?” I said to Coreg. “Is someone piping music in? For the crops to grow by?”
For answer he took two strides over and plucked a blossom from the nearest plant. There was a key change and an extra couple of beats then the steady notes I’d first heard returned to their monotonous refrain. This was definitely my ancestral planet; my fascination with music suddenly made sense.
Coreg squinted at the endless fields with their burden of flowering vines. Moisture shrouded the landscape.
“Must be a real concert at harvest time.” I said, lowering myself to the ground and sitting next to a clump of purple stalks. We had nothing to do but wait for Marcum—step three in his big plan—so I’d have to be patient. Plucking a plant-based tune might be a good distraction, but it was probably wiser to go over a few things with Coreg. We’d have to practice coordinating our time-pacing and Marcum had instructed him to teach me some Gleezhian phrases the old fashioned way. We should have been doing that while time was stopped. “Dude, so what are these words he wants me to learn?”
I got nothing but a green-faced scowl. He’d make a decent Hulk for Halloween—wouldn’t need a mask. He kicked a plant and the discordance hurt my ears, but it didn’t last long. He stepped over a couple of rows to make his way back to me, but when he stopped and stood there towering over me, a new inharmonious sound reached my ears. We turned our heads in sync and looked across the fields. Coreg dropped down next to me and hissed. “We’re not alone. And those aren’t farmers.”
He checked in the other directions and so did I. Coreg was no reckless warrior, I’d seen him display an eerie calm in battle, so I was more than a little concerned by his reaction. He was one hundred percent in cautious defensive mode.
I didn’t want to make the slightest sound. I didn’t want the plants to tip off our location and, heck, they weren’t tall enough to hide us. Crap. When Marcum brought us here he implied we were close to where he’d left Selina, but he hadn’t landed near the main housing structure because of something he detected underground. I knew there were lakes everywhere, above and below. I thought he meant that.
I chanced a whisper. “Gleezhians?”
Coreg nodded. He stretched out flat between the rows and indicated that I do the same. He twisted his thumb ring and in an instant he was nothing but a head and hands and boots. His clothing reflected the clumps of colorful crops, dripping with Klaqin dew. Then he grabbed at my hand and twisted my ring too, producing some sort of camouflage function, linked to the body suit. I would have liked to appreciate the cool factor for a while, but I could hear the enemy getting closer.
♫ ♫ ♫
MARCUM LATCHED THE Intimidator onto the Fighter Five. He sniffed the air and noticed the lighter than usual scent of the galactic lard. He set the controls for automatic pilot and the implosion device for the amount of time he deemed adequate. He slipped through the connector, and worked his way carefully around Commander Cotay, the Gleezhian negotiator and Hagab, who all stood frozen where he’d left them. He stopped behind Payat and knelt at his side. Payat’s left hand hung limp at his side, his thumb against his first finger. Marcum removed his own ring, lined up the correct symbols, and locked his ring to Payat’s for the few time units it took to transfer a tiny incriminating portion of data. With that task complete he moved to the place he had been before when he and Coreg had been holding Alex’s hands behind his back. He approximated his previous stance and readied himself.
He released his hold on time.
The very next moment he blurted out the worst Klaqin expletive he knew and pawed at the air where Alex and Coreg no longer were. He took a step back as Payat and Hagab reacted with stunned words of their own. The Commander and the Gleezhian negotiator were startled that two of their group had abruptly vanished, but they held their composure.
“Coreg!” Marcum exclaimed. “He and that Earth boy are both time-pacers. They’ve confined the effect to themselves and escaped.”
“But to where?” Commander Cotay drew his weapon and held it close to his chest as he checked the scanners. The Fighter Five trembled. The screen showed the Intimidator unlatching and flying off. The Commander flung himself into the chair and raised the controls. He took quick aim and shot the Intimidator with a freezer charge, the only one the Fighter Five still had. The Intimidator’s departure was halted; it drifted aimlessly. Cotay waved Marcum to come closer and grabbed the hand that wore the thumb ring. He twisted Marcum’s wrist and pressed his palm into the reader. The thumb ring’s tiny rotating edge connected and a hodgepodge of Klaqin letters and numbers sprang across the screen. The Commander cleared his throat and demanded that Hagab step up. The same series of symbols duplicated themselves below Marcum’s readout.
Payat was next. As soon as the first symbol appeared the Commander stood up and aimed his weapon at Payat’s head. The succeeding letters and numbers drew more than Klaqin gasps and clucks.
“Hagab. Marcum. Secure Fifth Commander Payat.” Commander Cotay’s order received swift obedience. But as soon as they grabbed Payat’s arms the viewing screen brightened with the mute implosion of the Intimidator. Everyone, except Marcum, was stunned. The Gleezhian spouted a harsh string of sounds, produced a weapon of his own, and held everyone in its sights.
Cotay used hand gestures and Gleezhian words to appease the negotiator before switching to Klaqin. “We’ve lost everything now. Two time-pacers,” he shook his head and looked at the Gleezhian’s weapon, “and that time-bender was undoubtedly hidden on that ship as well. Now we have no bargaining power.” He relaxed his hands as the negotiator put away the weapon. He turned to Payat who stood stiffly between Marcum and Hagab’s firm hold. “Explain your treason, Fifth Commander.”
“Sir, I did nothing. I don’t understand how my ring’s readout shows that I entered the Intimidator and returned. You know I was here all along.” Payat’s dull green face scrunched up as if he were about to cry. “It had to be some trick of Coreg’s. He’s clever. He could have paced himself away … the time-bender … the Earth boy …” he gulped and clucked, cleared his throat, and continued, “… he must have planted this misinformation.”
Marcum nodded his head, caught Hagab’s eye, and dared to speak out of turn, hoping his lie would deceive both his superior and the Gleezhian. “Sir, I believe him. Coreg used a similar trick in our bridge battle training.” Hagab began to nod in agreement.
“This leaves us little hope, Fifth Commanders. We’ll deal with him at base.” Commander Cotay spoke to the Gleezhian in low tones before ordering Marcum to fly them to the darkened Edge on the surface of Klaqin.
♫ ♫ ♫
I CONCENTRATED ON the notes the plants were emitting. I could have come up with some harmonies, but I focused on picturing the speed, direction, and number of enemies creeping our way. Eight, it seemed. An octet. The beat was unsteady. I wanted to pick my head up and spy, but since Coreg was playing dead I figured I’d better do the same. When a series of plant sounds followed a human scream I risked a peek. No fewer than three black-clad Klaqins saw me lift my head. What? Coreg had said they were Gl
eezhians. Shit. Or the Klaqin equivalent. I pivoted toward Coreg, but he had completely disappeared, except for his boots which were barely protruding from under a leafy yellow blossom. I knew what he did—he must have pulled the stretchy material up over his head and tucked his hands underneath. But if these dudes trampled the area around me they’d discover him.
In a split second decision I jumped up, twisted my ring, and ran toward the approaching double quartette with my hands up, alternating between “Don’t shoot!” and what I hoped was the corresponding Klaqin command. Not that I wanted to be caught and let Coreg go undetected, but, well, somebody had to stay behind to save Selina. And since he already thought of her as his time-bender, maybe he’d keep her safe.
I didn’t pace, but I was taken into their custody incredibly fast so I suspected Coreg was hurrying the inevitable capture along. They never crossed the last couple of rows to check out where I’d hidden so they didn’t find Coreg. Score one for me helping him. Now he owed me.
Two on each side of me clutched my arms. That’s when I realized they hadn’t understood a word I’d said, because not only was I not understanding a single one of their crazy utterances, but there were a few extra fingers bruising my arms. Coreg had been right. But why weren’t they hairy? I scanned their faces for clues and realized they must all be younger than I was. Smooth faces, kind of girlish in a dude way.
CHAPTER 15
♫ … like a small boat, on the ocean … ♫
SO, THIS WAS how it felt to be captured and unable to communicate. I tried a few Klaqin words as they marched me over the rows of plants and toward a pond. I thought of my father’s story of when he was captured and taken onto a Gleezhian ship. I sure hoped they weren’t going to take away my clothes like they did to my dad.
The Time Pacer: An Alien Teen Fantasy Adventure (The Time Bender Book 2) Page 13
